Dr. Matt Loop – How Social Media Made Me Rich

Learn how to use Social Media like Dr. Matt Loop did.

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Now here’s your host, Dr. Tabor Smith.

Dr. Tabor: Hello and welcome to Practice Growth Strategies. Thank you so much for being here today. We’ve got a special show for you. A good friend of mine, Dr. Matthew Loop, author of “Social Media Made Me Rich: Here’s How It Can Do the Same For You.” I’ve got my copy right here, holding it up for those of you who are watching the video here. It’s got bookmarks, it’s got baby slobber and all kinds of good stuff all over it, but when you do order yours, it comes nice and crisp and clean. So a great book, Dr. Loop. I’m very just happy for you and proud of you for putting out something of such quality. It’s very good.

Dr. Loop: Thank you, I mean I didn’t want it to be a pitch fest like a lot of stuff that I read, so I thought, “If I’m going to put my name behind this, I want to give away as much valuable insight as I can. Now, we both know that a certain amount of people will actually apply those strategies and others will need additional handholding, but I didn’t want anyone to read this and say, “Aw, he’s just trying to sell something. So it’s cool there and thank you very much for the kind words. I put my heart and soul into it.

Dr. Tabor: Yeah, no I can tell, and there’s so much content in there. I mean, we’d have to do 100 podcast interviews to get everything in one product probably. So what we’ll do is, by the way, I just want to let all the listeners know that Dr. Loop is going to be a speaker at the Chiro Thought Leaders Seminar coming up next month, February 26th and 27th, and if you haven’t got your tickets to that, you can go to ChiroThoughtLeaders.com/seminar. We’re really excited to have him out there as well. So stay tuned to this podcast because we’re going to get into some very thick content. Dr. Loop’s going to give you something that you can implement today into your practice to get more patients in or to grow that practice.

To start off though, Dr. Loop, I want to ask you a question about yourself. Tell us a little bit about your story, but then also tell us how did you marry the subjects of social media and marketing in chiropractic? Seems like a pretty specific niche to be such a “guru” in that area.

Dr. Loop: Well, my journey was accidentally into consulting. I’m a chiropractor like the listener that’s listening to this podcast right now. Graduated from Logan College of Chiropractic in 2004, got caught up in the whole accreditation mishap at Life around . . . I think it was like late 2001, late 2001ish.

Dr. Tabor: I think Dr. Zaino got caught up in that too.

Dr. Loop: Yeah, you know I remember seeing Zaino at the gym in Life. So I didn’t know a quarter he was in, but it was a very surreal time because you’re thinking, “How? A school doesn’t lose their accreditation.”

Dr. Tabor: That’s crazy.

Dr. Loop: And it was very surreal. And I was one of the last students. We had a class of over 200 students and I might have been in the last five in our class. And once I saw the instructor literally crying in front of the classroom, I just knew it was over, I had to make a decision. So that was probably in late December where I made the last-minute decision to transfer. So I graduated from Logan, came back to Atlanta. I love the city and the area.

And just like many chiropractors that are getting out of school, I had this burning desire to help patients, to build a private practice, and really to change the world. And you learn very, very quickly that when you just hang up a sign, people don’t automatically come to you. And that’s where I feel a lot of schools are deficient in terms of the business and marketing. So you have to let people know, even if they know they need your service, you still have to be able to communicate chiropractic in such a way that they see the value and that they’re influenced to come in and try what you have to offer.

So I was not the greatest at that at the time, but my practice was building and building. Meanwhile, my credit card debt was growing because I was trying a lot of different advertising and such: television, radio, and all these expensive mediums. And some produced, some didn’t. And I got to a point where my credit cards were totally maxed out and I had to . . . my ex-girlfriend’s father had to cut me a $2,000 check to float me along for the following month. And I just knew at that point in time, “I’m a great chiropractor. I’ve got to figure something out. What’s the missing link here?”

And that’s when I connected with a guy, Robert Cialdini, his work on influence. And it’s a fantastic book if you get a chance and the listeners get a chance. But it’s just one of those things where you really start to realize that human behavior is influenced by certain things: certain things that you say, how you act, and what you do. I just found that very fascinating because I didn’t get that training in chiropractor school. But I really started to study the market, which that simply to me means communication. Communicating your message to the right person at the right time so they want to come in and see you. And I became a student of marketing by necessity, really. And right around that time, it was 2005, which was when MySpace, of all the things, started stepping in and . . .

Dr. Tabor: I remember that.

Dr. Loop: . . . this idea about MySpace, that it was dangerous, kid stuff, unprofessional. And I really didn’t listen to the negativity so I started to think, “Okay. Well, these are real people on this network, I’m connecting with them, and randomly every 100 friend requests that I sent to local people in the community, one to two would just say, “Oh my gosh, you’re a chiropractor. I’ve got this going on my neck, or headaches, can you help me?” And I just thought it was very interesting since I could connect with those individuals by their interest, health topic, and how close they were to my practice. And as the numbers started to get 10-15 new patients per month from MySpace, friends of mine were asking, “Dude, what are you doing? How are you harnessing this network?” Because they heard about it. I began to show them how I was doing it, they started telling other chiropractic colleagues, and eventually got to a point where I was showing so many other doctors how to do this stuff that it was cutting into my practice time dramatically.

And I had to make a decision. I love treating patients, but I thought it would be an amazing thing to be able to help thousands of doctors reach millions more patients. And I said, “Okay. Well, let me try to refine this and perfect this and dial it in even more so.” And then 2006 came along and you’ve got YouTube that came about. Facebook, I believe it opened to the public either 2006 or early 2007; it used to be just a college network.

And so I just kept my finger on the pulse of what was going on and, so as I mentioned before I’m a chiropractor like you listening right now, my journey into social media was somewhat accidental, but I’m glad that it worked out the way that it did. I feel strongly that if more chiropractors truly mastered the art of social media marketing and communication, we could easily overcome critical mass. And in fact, I’ve got many clients where we’ve done just that in local markets. So the byproduct of being that well-known face, that celebrity expert, is you get referrals hand over fist and you build trust and credibility. You’re programming the market, essentially, what to think and believe about you, your service, as opposed to what people have already been conditioned to believe through the mass media, you know the AMA ordeal and all that other stuff.

Dr. Tabor: Right, awesome. Well, I have to tell you and the listeners, I’ve heard Dr. Loop speak several times, I’ve read the book, and you’re definitely the person I send people to. You’re the expert when it comes to social media. Not just social media, your book is full of all kinds of strategies from just about everything you need to start implementing online marketing. So I really appreciate that you really take every aspect that a chiropractor needs to know to be able to implement.

Sometimes you get a few little things and you just don’t know where to start or you don’t know how to begin, but your book really helps the chiropractor follow through with that so I appreciate that. So speaking of that, I know you have a million tips and strategies you could give us, but let’s say the listener right now is someone who was in your shoes at that point, where they’re thinking, “I need to do something, I’ve got to implement something, some kind of strategy.” What can they do, what can they implement maybe this week even that could help them to reach more people?

Dr. Loop: That’s a great question. And I could go in many different directions with that question, but what I will say, based on what the public has been conditioned to think and believe about chiropractic, is I believe we firmly need to position ourselves well from the get go. So it’s all about first impressions online and first impressions are either when a prospective patient comes to your website, whether they see, let’s say they’re Googling chiropractor in Houston, if they’re seeing your listing with the most reviews. There are a lot of ways somebody can come into your “funnel.” And I just find that a lot of doctors, they don’t position themselves over the top like super professionals. And what happens is when you don’t do that, you already lose credibility.

So one of the things is, for example, on your website, having something like the Facebook like button where you have that number counter up there, 100, 2000, 10,000 people click that button and it’s visual, social proof. So if I go to your site and I see that, “Dr. Tabor’s got 3,000 people that like this website, maybe it’s worth checking out because the social proof.” Not to mention those likes get shared on Facebook when somebody clicks that.

Having pictures with local celebrities in your community and/or national celebrities. If you went to MatthewLoop.com, you’ll see that I have a scrolling picture bar to the right-hand side where you can see pictures with people like Usher, Def Leppard, David Copperfield, Rob Schneider. And while some of these individuals are clients, you can have these pictures on your website without necessarily saying that you’re treating them and/or using it. It’s just a matter of that association that celebrity equals credibility by association. So it differentiates you from a lot of other doctors in the city and just practitioners in general.

This is all about conversion. So they see the like, they see the pictures, and now they’re starting to think, “Oh wow, this must be popular and/or it must be good or else he wouldn’t be associating in these circles.” So I always try to think about shaping perception. And in fact, in “Social Media Made Me Rich,” I had an entire chapter about shaping perception and positioning because it’s so important.

From there, once we have that perception established, then we can take it over to something like Google Places or Google Maps, Google My Business, Google Local, seems like it changes its name every other week. And that’s what you see when you Google, let’s say, “Houston chiropractor,” the top three listings. Sometimes it’s seven in different markets, but you’ll see the top three listings and the star ratings beside them.

Well, if you get the most reviews in your community, if you have the most citations, and you build the most credibility to that listing, there’s a chance you’re going to rank really, really high on the first page. Therefore, if people see that you’ve got 50, 100 reviews, well, again, another social proof trigger that they can’t possibly doubt what you have to say, that you get the results that you get, that you’re a great doctor in the community.

All this stuff kind of comes together and trickling that over into Facebook, having the most fans in a local market and using simple fan acquisition strategies that I talk about in the book to really, really ramp things up. So it’s about having all these little wheels, these spokes in the wheel at once. And when you do, you become the obvious choice when somebody does search and/or they’re looking for a local heath expert and whatnot. So that’s a big way to get your foot in the door immediately through credibility and positioning to break down those barriers of skepticism.

Dr. Tabor: And on that note, you recommend that we ask for reviews just like you’d ask for a testimonial?

Dr. Loop: Absolutely. If you don’t ask, you don’t receive.

Dr. Tabor: Right, yeah.

Dr. Loop: People have the best of intentions and I feel that sometimes chiropractors are very humble. Listen, we want to help people, obviously, and it would be wonderful if patients automatically just sang their praises, but you know how it is.

Dr. Tabor: Sure.

Dr. Loop: The only time somebody really likes to leave a review is when they’re pissed off.

Dr. Tabor: That’s the truth.

Dr. Loop: And then they feel super compelled to go to Yelp or to Google. We know that’s going to happen because we’re not perfect and sometimes maybe they have to wait a little bit longer in the office, but nonetheless, we should proactively have a review protocol in place. Just like your report of findings might be on your first or second visit.

Once that patient is feeling enthusiastic about chiropractic and the work that you’ve done, that’s when you can easily say something like, “Mrs. Jones, we’re thrilled that you’ve noticed such great results with chiropractic. Tell you what, we would love your feedback on this Google listing by your next visit and, if you give us your feedback, we’ve got this special gift of appreciation for you. It’s normally valued at $47, but really, it’s just our way of saying thank you for letting us serve you in the community.”

We give a deadline, we give an incentive if your state board allows, and we always, always, always give a reminder the day of the deadline. Short deadline, two days. If you have text capability in your office then send out a text reminder a couple hours before, basically to the tune of, “Mrs. Jones we just wanted to thank you for leaving us feedback. We’ll see you at your appointment today at 4 o’clock.” Even if she didn’t leave you feedback, it’s a very, very gentle way of reminding them.

If you don’t have text capability in your office, send an email early that morning or have your CA do it. Just make sure all the office team members are on the same page. And this is specifically so patients can leave reviews at home. The only time they can leave a review in your office is if they have a smartphone, iPhone or Android, and they download the Google Maps application. We can’t just have a computer set up in the office anymore, same IP address because Google can flag those reviews and they can get filtered. So if somebody has their smartphone, just tell them, “Hey, listen, it takes 20 seconds to download the Google Maps application.” Then, they can search through the maps application for your practice and leave you feedback from their phone in your office.

Dr. Tabor: Wow, great advice. And I love it because I’m all about creating systems so plugging that into the systems that are already in your office is a beautiful way to do that. By the way, for the listeners, every once in a while, if you go back through these podcasts you’ll hear babies crying in the background. That’s my two-year-old, my twins, so sometimes they make an appearance and sometimes they don’t.

Dr. Loop: I know how it is, man.

Dr. Tabor: Awesome. So tell us, Dr. Loop, what’s in your future? What are you working on right now?

Dr. Loop: Well, the number one thing right now is we’re promoting the book to try and get it to the masses. I feel that, one, every chiropractor should have this book because this is our ticket to get noticed on our terms, to really get our message to the masses. But aside from being a chiropractor, this is not a chiropractic book, per se. Anyone that is looking for an economic stimulus can benefit from this book because what I’ve done, essentially, is I’ve taken the strategies that the highest-paid internet entrepreneurs use in their marketing promotion to multiple their influence, income, and impact, and I’ve put it into an actionable format in this book.

So you’re right, it’s not just about social media, the stuff that I’ve learned, but mentors that I’ve learned from along the way. So when you combine this, one, it reduces your learning curve by years. And I think you know what I’m talking about because, Tabor, I can compliment you because when we first connected several years ago, I saw that passion in your eyes and you knew the Internet was the place to be to really reach a lot of people.

Dr. Tabor: Right.

Dr. Loop: And then I’ve seen your growth over the years and how you’ve implemented so you’ve become a stellar communicator and marketer. But I’m sure you can attest to this, that you’re going to get one fantastic nugget of information and then it’s going to maybe get you some results and then it’ll complete a certain portion of that puzzle. But then, you’re left questioned about, “Okay. Well, I know I need to learn how to copyright better, I know I need to learn how to get my emails opened, how to get into some of these other platforms.”

So once you get into online marketing, one, it’s addictive. It’s fun because you’re able to help a lot more people and make a lot more money. But two, you realize just what you don’t know. So that’s what my book is about, giving you a crash course in what you don’t know you don’t know. Here’s where you can start and make a huge impact and create a better life for your family.

So again, anyone, I don’t care where you are financially, economically, can benefit from this information. And my goal is that this reaches millions upon millions of people. So my team and I, we have a lot of work to do, obviously, and that’s really our major push at this stage. I think I mentioned to you before that we hit the number one bestseller list, nine different categories on Amazon, which is just fantastic.

Dr. Tabor: Congratulations.

Dr. Loop: Thank you, thank you. And a large part of that was due to all the chiropractors that participate and my clients, my joint venture partners and consultants and everyone that just helped promote that book on launch day. So picked up some great momentum and we’re really just trying to carry that forward into major media outlets to get some mass exposure and to really grow.

Dr. Tabor: Yeah. Well, first of all, let me just say thank you for the compliments. That means a lot to me coming from you and I really appreciate it. And I’m really big on investing in myself, personal growth, and learning every chance I could get. Last year, I tried to see how many books I could read/listen to. I hit 71 last year that I either read or listened to. And the reason is I think there’s just no other investment like a book. Where can you invest $20 and get all the information it would take you 10 seminars to go to? I mean, it’s absolutely ridiculous.

Everybody listening to this needs to go right now to get this “Social Media Made Me Rich” book because it’s absolutely the best investment that you could possibly make, the least amount of money with the maximum amount of personal growth that you’re going to have. So let us know where can we find the book and where can we also go to find more about what you’re doing?

Dr. Loop: Sure, SocialMediaMadeMeRich.com is where I’m sending everyone and there’s a special page if you go to the About tab at the very top center and you hover your cursor over the About tab, you’ll see a special launch bonus page. On that page, because I’m really committed to helping the listeners and anybody that really is receptive to this information, we’ve got over $500 in special gift bonuses that, when you invest in Social Media Made Me Rich today, you’ll get access to those bonuses.

Now, there are other packages on there, if you’re a company or consultant or if you have a big group that you want access to these books, but regardless of how many copies you invest in, whether it’s one or multiple, I’m very grateful for your support. SocialMediaMadeMeRich.com is where you can go. Again, go to the About tab, hover your cursor over there and you’ll see the launch bonus page. And that’s where you can go ahead and click and go through. It’ll take you to Amazon, but I want to make sure you see what’s offered specifically on that page so you can get your extra bonuses.

Dr. Tabor: Awesome. Well, I’d just say that there’s no wonder to me why you hit all those accolades on Amazon because it’s an absolute no-brainer investment. So we really appreciate you being on the show today, Dr. Loop. It’s always a pleasure and you always bring awesome content so thank you so much. Anything you want to say in closing?

Dr. Loop: There’s never been a more perfect opportunity to leverage inexpensive technology to create a life of abundance for your family, for your practice, that you deserve. And like you said before, I just don’t know of anywhere else you can tap into somebody’s wisdom over an amount of years for such an inexpensive price as what’s in a book. So thank you very much for the kind recommendation. But this book has the potential to really, really grow your business, grow your life, and set you up for a very, very nice financial future. So if you like the idea of studying the world’s top Internet entrepreneurs, seeing what they’re doing to create abundance, you’re going to love this book.

Dr. Tabor: Absolutely. Well said. Thank you so much for being here and have an awesome day.

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